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Israel accused Iran of “deception and self-delusion” in what has been called the most significant development between the United States and the Iran in the last 34 years.

Barack Obama said that “Diplomacy opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure, a future in which we can verify that Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon. While today’s announcement is just a first step, it achieves a great deal. For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear programme.”

The deal commits Iran to stop uranium enrichment above five per cent, limit existing stockpiles of enriched uranium, stop further development of the Arak reactor and allow increased inspections of its nuclear sites.

In turn, the six world super powers – the U.S, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany (P5+1) – are committed to relieve economic sanctions on Iran.

The compromise reached in Geneva may only be for six months but it has significantly reshuffled alliances in the middle east and inevitably caused controversy. The United States have called it a “great deal”, a standpoint that contradicts that of their Israeli allies who are calling it a “historic mistake”.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his cabinet: “Today the world has become a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world has taken a significant step toward attaining the most dangerous weapon in the world”.

Remaining highly critical of negations between Iran and U.S, the Israeli embassy in Dublin reiterated today that, “The agreement that was signed between Iran and the P5+1 is a bad agreement and a mistake. Iran received the deal it wanted, and the West received a very bad and dangerous deal. There is no such thing as a half solution in a matter like this; the example of North Korea shows that when extremist regimes get a soft deal like this it does not produce stability in the long-term but merely buys the regime time to further its ambitions.”

With such a strong reaction from the Israeli side, it can’t but highlight the fact that Israel refuses to acknowledge publicly that it has nuclear weapons. The U.S government also officially does not acknowledge the existence of such a program.

ONE diplomat was among the dead according to Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi. He identified the diplomat as Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari. The ambassador says Ansari took his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities.

A further 150 people have been injured.

According to Lebanese officials, the first explosion was caused by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle and the second, just minutes later, was caused by a car bomb parked two buildings away from the embassy.

The main gate to the embassy was blown out and there was damage to the three-storey building, Lebanese television stations said.

“At one entrance of the Iranian embassy I counted six bodies outside. I saw body parts around and thrown two streets away,” Reuters television cameraman Issam Abdullah said from the scene.

The area surrounding the embassy is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. It has been hit with several attacks in recent months.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called the attack “a cowardly terrorist act”, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported. “The aim of the blast is to stir up the situation in Lebanon and use the Lebanese arena to convey messages,” he said.

The al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigade have reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesperson from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs commented this
morning adding that they “condemn the attack in Bruit this morning and are not
aware of any Irish citizens involved”.